Miki's History Lesson
by Aika-chan
Summary: Miki needs help studying for her history exam tomorrow so Yuu rounded up a few "friends" to help her "bone up" on a few things. Crossover of Marmalade Boy, Shama King, Hikaru no Go, Inu-Yasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo and Ruroni Kenshin. It's A material!


Miki's History Lesson By Aika-chan  
  
One bright day in the Koishikawa–Matsuura household...  
  
"Come on Miki, we're going to be late!"  
  
"I'm coming!"  
  
"Come on Miki," a young blonde boy yelled back, running as fast as he could down the sidewalk, with a young brunette at his heels.  
  
"I'm coming," she yelled.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
After, about 10 minutes of running the two teens came to a small house. Yuu, (the young, blonde boy) went up the stairs and opened the door and Miki (the brunette) followed.  
  
"Put your things down and have a sit," Yuu said to Miki as she looked around.  
  
"Okay." Miki continued to look around. She discovered that it was in a classroom fashion, this little house (which for anybody who wants to know is actually what we at Huron High School would call a portable [1]), with counters on either side of the room and a big black board at which Yuu was now standing. Looking down at her feet, Miki noticed she had forgotten to take off her shoes. Yuu shook his head.  
  
"Don't worry about it," he said. "Okay, we can now begin our lesson," Yuu spoke clearly and then all of the sudden the room was filled with people.  
  
"Ahhhhh!" Miki screamed, "Where did all these people come from?!" Creak, the door opens.  
  
"Sorry we're late!" said Yoh.  
  
"Yeah, we over slept!" said Hikaru.  
  
"We didn't!" shouted Anna, Akari, and Manta.  
  
"No problem, we just got here too, ne Miki? Miki?"  
  
"Wh-where, d-d-did t-they c-c-come from?" Mike stuttered pointing at the figures that had suddenly appeared.  
  
"'They', as you referred d to them, are here to help you review for your history test tomorrow!" Yuu said sternly.  
  
"Fine then, what are they?!"  
  
"They're ghost," said a voice from behind Miki.  
  
"Hi! I'm Asakura Yoh; this is Oyamada Manta, Kyôyama Anna, Shindo Hikaru, and Fujisaki Akari.  
  
"And them?" Miki pointed at the strange visitors again. This time Hikaru took over in explanations.  
  
"Well..." Miki's eyes shifted over to Hikaru, who walked away from the rest of the group and to the side of the first ghostly apparition. "This is Himura Kenshin, Mibu Kyoshiro, Nobunaga Amari, Amidamaru, and my buddy Fujiwara-no-Sai."  
  
"And how are they going to help me study?!" questioned Miki, still quite fearful.  
  
"Miki, what era are you going to be tested on?"  
  
"Well let's see...the Nara and Heian Eras, the Muramachi Era, the Azuchi- Momoyama Era, the Edo Era, and the Meiji Era."  
  
"Great! And you know why? Because we have a ghost from every time period!"  
  
said Yuu. "You see, Sai is from the Nara and Heian Eras, Amidamaru is from the Muramachi Era, Amari is from the Azuchi-Momoyama Era, Kyo is from the Edo Era, and Kenshin here is from the Meiji Era. Now isn't that just convenient?"  
  
Miki began to calm down. "Oh I see, maybe this could help a lot, but now next time tell me in advance before you scare me half to death."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"To begin," Yuu started, "to begin we will start with Instructor Fujiwara and begin with a lecture on Nara and Heian periods. Fujiwara-san if you would begin," Yuu passed the mic to Sai.  
  
Sai, er, Fujiwara-san came to the front of the classroom.  
  
"With pleasure," Fujiwara-san commenced with his lecture. "The Nara and Heian periods began in 710 when the first permanent Japanese capital was established in Nara. Nara was modeled after the Chinese capital at the time," Fujiwara-san paused. "Miki-chan, shouldn't you be taking notes?"  
  
"Ne? Oh, of course sensei."  
  
"May I continue?"  
  
"Hai."  
  
"Alright. Many large Buddhist monasteries were later built in Nara. These Buddhist monasteries started to gain powerful political influence in Nara. Eventually, because of the fear of losing the position of emperor and having the empire over thrown, the capital was moved to Nagaoka. This event happened in 784. These events later repeated themselves and the capital was once again relocated ten year later. The new location for the capital this time was in Heian, which later became Kyoto, where the capital remained for a thousand years.  
  
"Are there any questions so far Miki-chan?"  
  
"Iie sensei," Miki shook here head.  
  
"Good! May I continue?" Miki nodded.  
  
"One of the most important things to remember about this time period is how the Chinese influence of art and literature and other things gradually declined and over time became more, well more Japanese, or less Chinese, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, in order to meet Japanese needs, the government, which had been modeled after the Chinese government, added several new offices. In during this time to meet the Japanese needs many native Japanese movements became popular, this influenced the arts. And the greatest thing of all, the development of the Kana syllables which gave us the actual creation of Japanese Literature."  
  
"You mean like Yuki Eiri?"  
  
"Yeah, like Yuki Eiri. Now don't interrupt him without a good reason Miki," Yuu, said a bit angry.  
  
"My I continue?" Fujiwara-san asked.  
  
"Hai sensei."  
  
"Very well. Something else happened during this period, the Taika Reforms. The Taika Reforms were an attempt to create a new government and administrative system that was based on the Chinese model. Two of the worst failures of the Taika Reforms were the land and taxation reforms and let me explain why. The high taxes soon led to the impoverishment of many, many farmers who became so poor they had to sell their land and become tenants of larger land owners. Then many of the aristocrats and Buddhist monasteries succeeded in achieving tax immunity. As a result of this the state income decreased dramatically, causing political power to steadily shift from the central government to the now large and independent land owners.  
  
"The Fujiwara family..." Miki's hand shot up in the air. "No relation..." Fujiwara-san said behind his hand and Miki's hand shot back down just as quickly as it had shot up.  
  
"The Fujiwara family controlled the political scene of the Heian period by inter-marrying with the imperial family and by occupying all of the important political offices in Kyoto as well as the other major provinces. The power of the clan eventually reached its peak with Fujiwara Michinaga in 1016. After Michinaga, though, the ability of the Fujiwara leaders began to decrease. Because of this public order could not be maintained and with this the landlords hired samurai for protection for themselves as well as their land. This time in history is how and why the military became so influential.  
  
"Finally, in 1068 the reign of the Fujiwara family came to an end with the new emperor Go-Sanjo. The reason: the Emperor had been quite determined to rule the country himself and the Fujiwaras failed to stop him from doing so. In 1086 Go-Sanjo abdicated but he continued to rule from behind the scenes, creating a new form of government. This form of government is called Insei government.  
  
"Shall I repeat that?"  
  
"Nope, I think I'm fine."  
  
"Alright then. The Insei emperors continued to rule over Japan until 1156 when Taira Kiyomori became the new leader of Japan...."  
  
"Then came the Minamoto and Taira families?"  
  
"Why yes, but how did you ...?"  
  
"Well I remember the sensei talking about the Early Nine Years which was from 1050-1059 and then the Later Three Years war from 1083-1087 and...  
  
"Miki do you remember the capturing of Kyoto?" asked Amidamaru.  
  
"Yeah I think so, didn't that happen in 1336?"  
  
"Hai. What about his brother and the warlords who were competing for the control over all of Japan?" asked Kenshin pointing to Amari, who had some how fallen a sleep during Sai's intriguing lecture.  
  
"Was his brother Nobunaga Oda?"  
  
"And what about the Sekigahara War the greatest war in the history of Japan?" queried Kyo.  
  
"Yep, I remember that too."  
  
"What about the Meiji Restoration?" questioned Kenshin.  
  
"Is that when the emperor Meiji was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo and that became the new capital?"  
  
"Uh, Miki if you remember of this stuff then why didn't you just say so in the first place?" asked Yuu, a bit puzzled.  
  
"Well you said it was just a review."  
  
"Ahhhh!" the rest of the group moans as they fall to the floor. So much for Miki's history lesson. 


End file.
